Sorry for the radio silence on my part as I have settled into this new position at Peppercom as "Director of Customer Insights" and my new relationship with C3 as a research affiliate. I hope to be back to posting a couple of times a week from this point forward.

To start with, there were a couple of recent pieces I have written over on the PepperDigital blog that I thought might be of interest to Consortium blog readers:

A Model for Better Understanding Communities Online. "That's not to vilify segmentation. It's no more a help to say every audience member is unique than it is to say the audience is all the same--neither produce a model that's feasible for effective mass communication. It just means there's a need for a more nuanced way to understand the different types of online audience members."

More Chatter about Canada's Brand and Media's Role. "As Canadian media such as these two shows continue to gain notoriety south of the border and across the globe, one has to think there are definite benefits to the Canadian brand, differentiating the Canadian experience and Canadian society through distinctly Canadian television shows."

Digital Technologies and Local Journalism. "Earlier, I wrote about my recent travels to Boston and how the great conversations I had kept returning to the many ways that physical proximity cannot be replaced by virtual tools. This very point is part of the underlying logic of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, a project I worked with in its beginning stages, which is dedicated in part to how digital technologies might affect citizenship and the dissemination of news in specific towns or communities.

Telling Your Story as Simply as Possible: A Lesson from Edward Albee's Occupant. "That doesn't mean I'm any less enthusiastic about the ways in which technologies can help tell stories, whether they be fictional narratives, journalism pieces, or packages from public relations professionals. The message at the heart of this post is to always tell a story as simply as possible. If a technology enhances that story and helps you get at the heart of the message you're trying to convey, incorporate it. If not, don't muddy the waters. Remember that the best stories of all are often the simplest."